How Depression Changes What We Crave: New Study Insights

• A study of individuals suffering from major depressive disorder published in Psychological Medicine found that their wanting for various food items is lower compared to their healthy peers
• Looking at the macronutrient content of food, depressed participants had lower wants and likings for high-fat and high-protein foods if they were low in carbohydrates.
• Their preferences for foods high in carbohydrates were the same as those of healthy participants, or sometimes even higher.
• These alterations in liking and wanting of food dependent on macronutrient composition might indicate that there are disturbances in gut-brain signaling in depressed individuals

Most of us have experienced a lack of appetite when we are ill. When we have a fever (e.g., caused by some respiratory infection), we may completely forget about eating for prolonged periods and still not experience hunger. Similarly, certain physiological conditions, such as pregnancy, are well known to induce cravings for specific foods and alter an individual’s preference for certain food items (Orloff & Hormes, 2014). Changes in appetite and food preferences are also present in individuals suffering from depression.

Depression

Depression or major depressive disorder is a mental health disorder characterized by persistent sadness, loss of interest or pleasure in activities, and a range of emotional and physical symptoms. It can impact a person’s thoughts, behavior, sleep patterns, appetite, and overall ability to function in daily life.

Together with anxiety disorders, it is one of the most common mental health disorders worldwide (Baxter et al., 2014; Briley & Lépine, 2011). Although medications and psychotherapy treatments for depression exist and are widely used, they are not very effective, with up to 55% of individuals not achieving remission after antidepressant treatment. Combined with the fact that many individuals with depressive symptoms who seek help do not get diagnosed or do not receive adequate treatment, estimates are that only 5-7% of individuals with depression receive a treatment that results in remission of symptoms (McIntyre et al., 2023).

Only 5-7% of individuals with depression receive a treatment that results in remission of symptoms.

This is the reason why intense research into mechanisms underpinning depression and new ways to treat it is ongoing across the world. One stream of these studies looks into links between depression and eating behavior.

Depression and food

Many studies reported links between depression and specific behavior patterns. Individuals suffering from depression seem to be more prone to emotional eating (Dakanalis et al., 2023). In other words, they are more likely to use food intake as a method of coping with negative emotions and unclear, but distressing, mental states.

Another study found that consumption of fried foods can facilitate depression by affecting the metabolism of fats in the body and promoting neuroinflammation (inflammation of the nerve tissue) (Wang et al., 2023). Studies also note increased severity of depression symptoms in individuals eating lots of ultraprocessed foods (Samuthpongtorn et al., 2023). On the other hand, adherence to healthy diets such as the Nordic diet seems to be associated with lower severity of depression symptoms (Araste et al., 2024).

Consumption of fried foods can facilitate depression by affecting the metabolism of fats in the body and promoting neuroinflammation.

The current study

Study author Lilly Thurn and her colleagues note that anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure from activities that are normally enjoyable and rewarding, is one of the hallmark symptoms of depression. This blunted sensitivity to rewards also affects eating. Depression and anhedonia seem to disrupt neural reward signaling pathways that respond differently to fats and carbohydrates, reducing the pleasure derived from food.

On the other hand, individuals with depression often have increased cravings for food items rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Depression seems to alter energy metabolism and gut-brain communication, creating neurochemical imbalances like reduced serotonin activity that drive these cravings.

To investigate the specificities of how depressed individuals perceive food, these authors conducted a study in which they compared a group of people suffering from major depressive disorder with a group of healthy individuals (Thurn et al., 2025).

The study participants were 54 people diagnosed with major depressive disorder and 63 healthy participants, who were used as controls. Their average age was 30, and their mean body mass index was 23.6 (i.e., they were of normal weight). To participate in the study, participants were required to be between 20 and 50 years of age and not suffer from serious mental disorders or neurological conditions.

As part of a larger study, participants completed several assessments of depression and anhedonia, provided blood samples, completed various reward-related tasks, and underwent body measurements.

They also completed a series of food cue reactivity tasks. In these tasks, researchers would show them pictures of various food items, and participants were to rate how much they liked and wanted the food item shown. Participants gave their ratings on a 0-100 visual analogue scale (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Study procedure (Thurn et al., 2025)

 

Depressed participants had lower food wanting

Results showed that participants with major depressive disorder, on average, did not differ from their healthy peers in how much they liked food items they were shown. However, on average, they reported wanting them less. This lower wanting was particularly notable in participants with pronounced anhedonia.

Depressed participants had an increased desire for food rich in carbohydrates

Next, the study authors sought to investigate whether these differences in food preferences were related to the macronutrient composition of the food items. Macronutrients are the essential nutrients—carbohydrates, proteins, and fats—that the body requires in large amounts for energy, growth, and overall functioning. The study authors created and tested a statistical model that predicted participants’ responses based on the content of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in the food items displayed.

Results showed that wanting and liking a food item depended on its carbohydrate content. Depressed participants tended to enjoy and like food items with more carbohydrates. They tended to report lower liking for foods rich in fats and proteins if they were low in carbohydrates.

Figure 2. Altered Food Wanting and Macronutrient Preferences in Depression

 

While, for example, healthy participants reported relatively similar levels of liking of foods rich in fats regardless of their carbohydrate contents, depressed participants showed similar levels of liking only for fat-rich foods that were also rich in carbohydrates, while displaying much lower average levels of liking and wanting for fat-rich foods that were low in carbohydrates. The situation was similar when protein and carbohydrate contents were compared – depressed participants liked protein-rich foods as much as healthy participants did (and wanted it just a bit less) if it was rich in carbohydrates. If carbohydrate content was low, depressed participants wanted it and liked it much less than healthy participants.

Conclusion

The study showed that individuals suffering from major depressive disorder tend to show lower overall wanting for food. This was particularly the case in individuals with pronounced anhedonia. More specifically, their preferences for foods rich in carbohydrates were either similar to those of healthy participants or slightly higher. In contrast, preferences for fat- and protein-rich foods that were low in carbohydrates were significantly lower compared to those of healthy participants.

These results correspond with findings of other studies linking depression with increased intake of high-calorie foods and obesity. However, this also confirms that food perception and food preferences change in depressed individuals, something that treatments for depression should take into account.

The paper “Altered food liking in depression is driven by macronutrient composition” was authored by Lilly Thurn, Corinna Schulz, Diba Borgmann, Johannes Klaus, Sabine Ellinger, Martin Walter, and Nils B. Kroemer.

 

References

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Baxter, A. J., Vos, T., Scott, K. M., Ferrari, A. J., & Whiteford, H. A. (2014). The global burden of anxiety disorders in 2010. Psychological Medicine, 44(11), 2363–2374. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291713003243

Briley, M. & Lépine. (2011). The increasing burden of depression. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 3. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S19617

Dakanalis, A., Mentzelou, M., Papadopoulou, S. K., Papandreou, D., Spanoudaki, M., Vasios, G. K., Pavlidou, E., Mantzorou, M., & Giaginis, C. (2023). The Association of Emotional Eating with Overweight/Obesity, Depression, Anxiety/Stress, and Dietary Patterns: A Review of the Current Clinical Evidence. Nutrients, 15(5), 1173. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15051173

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Orloff, N. C., & Hormes, J. M. (2014). Pickles and ice cream! Food cravings in pregnancy: Hypotheses, preliminary evidence, and directions for future research. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01076

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Thurn, L., Schulz, C., Borgmann, D., Klaus, J., Ellinger, S., Walter, M., & Kroemer, N. B. (2025). Altered food liking in depression is driven by macronutrient composition. Psychological Medicine, 55. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291724003581

Wang, A., Wan, X., Zhuang, P., Jia, W., Ao, Y., Liu, X., Tian, Y., Zhu, L., Huang, Y., Yao, J., Wang, B., Wu, Y., Xu, Z., Wang, J., Yao, W., Jiao, J., & Zhang, Y. (2023). High fried food consumption impacts anxiety and depression due to lipid metabolism disturbance and neuroinflammation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120(118). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2221097120